German trade surplus up modestly in August

BERLIN — Germany's trade surplus in August widened modestly despite ongoing weak demand from the other countries using the euro currency, government figures showed Tuesday.

The Federal Statistical Office said Tuesday that exports, adjusted for seasonal and calendar differences, totaled 91.5 billion euros ($124.2 billion) in August. That was 1 percent higher than the previous month. Meanwhile, imports only grew by a monthly rate of 0.4 percent to 75.9 billion euros.

That means the surplus increased to 15.6 billion euros from July's 15.0 billion euros, a potential positive for Germany's economic growth. Germany was the main reason why the eurozone as a whole posted growth in the second quarter of the year following six quarters of economic contraction.

In a separate report, the Economy Ministry said factory orders dropped 0.3 percent in August over the previous month. Orders in July had already slipped 1.9 percent over June but the ministry said despite the developments the volume of orders of big-ticket items is still higher than on average in the second quarter.